Quiet Hints, Chapter 14–"Dishonesty”

Topics: Pastors·Preaching

Notes taken from Quiet Hints to Growing Preachers by Charles E. Jefferson, Chapter 14, “Dishonesty.”

“If a man is crotchety he can be tolerated; if he is prejudiced or ignorant he can be borne with ; he may be lacking in a score of qualities which men count desirable and still be a useful and an honored man. But who can endure a minister who cheats or lies?"

“Deplorable is the condition of a church which has in its pulpit an anointed rogue.”

“Deliberate and cold-blooded liars are not numerous in the pulpit, but there are many men there who lack a fine and scrupulous regard for truth.”

“There are clerical Munchausens who run a thread of romance through their sermons without the slightest compunctions of conscience. They have fibbed so long they cannot tell fiction from truth.”

“Men become so zealous for the truth they lie for it.”

“The man who will inflate his church to impress the community by a display of figures is a man who will pursue dishonest courses to cover up a numerical shrinkage.”

“Brethren, be honest! Though the heavens fall, be honest!"